Wordpress question!

[Tara Ballenger]

Hello! I'm a Realtor, and I'm trying to set up a website using Wordpress. For now, I'd prefer to just go with Wordpress.com with a custom domain name, just to get started so I can have a digital business card and start to build my blog audience. 

Eventually I'd like to convert to Wordpress.org, so I can have full control and implement an IDX plugin, etc. Should I worry about this conversion/migration down the road? Will it be a headache? Will I lose ranking by switching server and hosts? I could start with Wordpress.org but I'd really prefer to keep things simple right now because I have a lot on my plate.

[Keanan Koppenhaver]

Hi Tara!

Wordpress developer here, so this is a question I get alot.  From where I sit, it sounds like you've got a pretty good plan.  

The reasons I caution people away from WP.com at times is that you can only use certain themes and certain allowed plugins with wordpress.com.  So as long as you're ok with having a pretty basic site (and it sounds like you are), then you should be ok to use that to get set up.

As far as converting to WP.org down the road, Wordpress has a great export tool (https://en.support.wordpress.com/export/) that generates an .xml file which you can import into any other WordPress site.  If you have a pretty basic site (just pages and posts and such) then this export works great!  This is the route I would go when moving over to WP.org.

As far as switching server and hosts, that doesn't much matter in this case as long as all the content on your site stays the same (or are set up as a 301 redirect https://moz.com/learn/seo/redirection).  

Since you'd just be moving content from WP.com to your own site and moving the domain over, I would think all the URLs would stay the same, so you shouldn't have a ranking problem.

Sounds like you're on the right track.  If you find that you want a theme or a plugin that you can't get on WP.com shoot me a private message and I'd be happy to help you get your own server set up.

Good luck and congrats on getting started!

-Keanan